Cabinet under 'gag order' on sequester

It’s no accident that the fight over multibillion-dollar cuts to every government agency sounds a lot like cuts hitting one agency — the Pentagon.

The reason: It hasn’t been a fair fight.

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Top officials at three domestic agencies say they were instructed by the White House not to talk about the looming sequester cuts unless their talking points were first cleared by the Office of Management and Budget.

The direction from the White House so infuriated Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski that she’s planning a hearing next Thursday to give domestic agencies a chance to make their case by inviting officials from OMB, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security.

“It’s been under a gag order,” the Maryland Democrat said of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet to POLITICO. “I’m against gag rules.”

A White House aide said the Cabinet has been central in the sequestration debate, from Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s testimony before a Senate panel last summer to an OMB report spelling out programs that would be hit by the across-the-board cuts.

But White House officials have also told the Cabinet that it was taking the lead in message operations on sequestration, according to three senior Obama administration officials. Yes, the agencies have a green light to talk about the spending cuts. But they must go through the OMB for coordination to avoid “causing mass confusion” for millions of federal employees.

“You don’t want to send mixed messages,” said one senior aide.

There’s also been a limit on what’s said from the Cabinet because of concern that the Obama officials could end up drawing more attacks from congressional Republicans who have shown they are determined to cut spending across the board, even at the once-sacrosanct Pentagon.

When administration officials have spoken about sequestration, the message has had a predictable rhythm, criticizing the cuts as “bad policy.” Agency heads say their departments will be able to function, but early plans for dealing with a decade of mandatory across-the-board spending cuts also would start with furloughs, hiring freezes and canceling travel and conferences.

The message from the nondefense Cabinet stands in stark contrast with the Pentagon, which has been out in force ever since the idea of the automatic cuts surfaced during Obama’s showdown with House Republicans in 2011.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has led the P.R. offensive, calling sequester cuts a “doomsday machine.” Military brass fanned out on the Hill to seek a reprieve. Defense industry bosses played up talk of layoffs.

It’s also been tough for the other agencies to compete with the flag-draped warnings of doom and gloom that Pentagon officials can offer, but it’s not just that. The Pentagon’s press machine has few equals in Washington, not to mention constituencies across the country that would feel the pain of budget cuts at local bases and defense factories.

So as the fight over cuts comes down to the wire — House Republicans rejected Obama’s latest idea for a short-term deal Tuesday — news is bad for both sides of the equation.

The defense budget is primed to take about half of all the cuts in the first year — or about $43 billion. The non-defense discretionary budget will include cuts of about $6.6 billion from Health and Human Services and nearly $3.7 billion each from Homeland Security, Education and Housing and Urban Development. The departments of State and Energy also face cuts of about $2.5 billion each.